Her singer-songwriter songs are acoustic at the centre, surrounded by a rough and ready roots sound, with touches of organ, pedal steel and twangy lead guitar. The key is found in her strong lyrics, and her sharp observational style. The stuff we all struggle to figure out, she's managed to find a way to put into words. In The River, she sums up a relationship with "When it comes to you and me, I know nothing is perfect/ It has never been easy but it's always been worth it." In the opening cut Friendly Fire, she tells us "I didn't want to be a fighter but it became apparent from an early age that life had me backed into a corner." Most striking is My Mother's Boyfriend, where she goes over advice received by two parents, one close friend, and the titular guy who says "Make your luck, I hope he meant it lying dead under that truck." In short, lots of advice, life's still a mess, but press on.
That's the kind of voice I want to hear, and it's not the accent (cool as it is), it's the clarity of her writing, and bursts of wisdom in each song. Catch Tandy at the Rogue Cafe in Saint John, N.B. on Thursday the 29th, Grimross in Fredericton on Friday, an in-store at Back Alley Music in Charlottetown Saturday afternoon, a show at The Dunk in Breadalbane, P.E.I. Saturday evening, and the Carleton in Halifax Tuesday, April 3.
No comments:
Post a Comment